Elisabeth Fritzl’s father caught her in a basement for 24 years. In the terrible case

Elisabeth Fritzl was caught in a basement for 24 years and sexually abused by her father Josef Fritzl – and had seven of his children.

Years before the kidnapping, Josef changed the basement of her family home in Austria, where he finally lured and imprisoned Elisabeth. When she disappeared, he claimed that she had run away from home and even convinced his wife Elisabeth’s mother Rosemarie that she was willing to join a cult.

Josef and Rosemarie showed three children from Elisabeth, who pretended to go to Elisabeth on the doorstep, while Elisabeth was forced to educate three of her children in a closed underground site without a window.

They and seven of their children survived 8,516 days in captivity, so The Belfast TelegraphNever sunlight with some until they were adults. The case and its media attention were part of the inspiration for the 2010 novel Room And the film of the same name, which was published five years later.

Elisabeth has been intentionally low since escape. Here is everything to know where Elisabeth Fritzl and her children are now.

Who is Elisabeth Fritzl?

Elisabeth was born on April 6, 1966 and grew up in the house of her family in Amstetten, Austria. When she was 11 years old, Josef began to sexually abuse her, so The guardian.

Josef began to create plans for the construction of his extended cellar around 1981 or 1982. He cleared the room with electricity, made it soundproof and installed a toilet, a sink, a stove and a refrigerator and a bed.

In 1984 he asked an 18-year-old Elisabeth to help him hang up the last door in the basement, Sky News reported. During the trial, Josef held an essential cloth on her face until she was passed out and then moved into the basement, where she would be caught for 24 years.

Josef physically, mentally and sexually abuses Elisabeth almost every day on the second day of her captivity. He told everyone that she had run away to join a cult and forced her letters to support his history. Elisabeth was alone, apart from Josef’s abuse in the first five years of captivity per The guardian.

During her 24 years of detention, Elisabeth gave birth to seven children of her father. Josef took three children (Lisa, Monika and Alexander) to live with him and Rosemarie, and staged three incidents in which a baby would be left behind with notes by Elisabeth to ask Josef and Rosemarie to take care of them.

In the meantime, three other children (Kerstin, Stefan and Felix) remained in the basement with Elisabeth. A twin boy named Michael died days after the birth and Josef later admitted to burning the body.

Who is Josef Fritzl?

Josef Fritzl had seven children with his daughter Elisabeth. However, his crimes may not have been limited to his sexual, physical and mental abuse of Elisabeth.

Accordingly The TelegraphIn 1967 he raped a 24-year-old woman at Messerpoint and was a suspicious person in the attempted sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman. He served a year with an 18-month prison sentence for the rape of 1967, with the crime triggered from his criminal register 15 years later.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Josef was also a suspect in four murders and several cases of missing persons who go back almost 50 years, including the sexual assault and murder of a 17-year-old girl who resembled Elisabeth.

Why was Elisabeth Fritzl closed in the basement?

Josef expressly designed the basement in such a way that Elisabeth made it almost impossible to escape him or someone nearby to hear her when she screamed for help. He had a provisional security system and ensured that the basement was soundproofing.

“I brought a heavy door made of steel and concrete and equipped it with a remote -controlled electric motor that would only open it after a numerical code was entered” The guardian).

Sky News reported that Josef Elisabeth and her children said that if they tried to flee, they would be released electrically or poison to the basement to kill them.

Josef claimed that he initially locked Elisabeth in the basement because she smoked, drank and did not stick to his and Rosemarie’s budget rules. But the longer Elisabeth was locked away, the more difficult it became for him to let her out.

“With every week in which I captured my daughter, my situation became crazy,” he said. “I was afraid to be arrested and to find out my family and everyone out there from my crime – and so I kept postponing my decision. By one day it was really too late to free Elisabeth and take it up.”

According to Josef, Elisabeth’s sexual abuse began when she was in the basement after his feelings had strengthened over time.

“I knew that I was hurt. But the urge to finally try the forbidden fruits was too strong. It was like addiction,” he told officials.

Did Elisabeth Fritzl’s mother knew that she was in the basement?

According to reports, Rosemarie did not know that Elisabeth was locked up in the basement, and no one else.

“The basement of my house belonged to me and I was alone my kingdom, to which only I had access” The guardian.

He continued: “Everyone who lived there knew that. My wife, my children, my sub -tenants. And nobody would have dared to enter my realm or even ask me what I was doing there.”

Authorities told The Sydney Morning Herald That they believed that Rosemarie was not aware of Josef’s crimes against Elisabeth and the children, but knew that she knew about his rape assessment of 1967 and took him back after being released from prison.

Josef was reportedly physically abusive for Rosemarie and her son Harald.

How did Elisabeth Fritzl escape?

During his conversation with Austrian prosecutors, Josef noticed that he had set a timer in the event of his death, so that if he never bumped out for a certain time and entered the basement, and could be free. But there was an unexpected turn of the events when Elisabeth’s daughter Kerstin, then 19, got sick.

On April 19, 2008, Elisabeth Josef, Kerstin, convinced to take a hospital for medical treatment. When Josef gave Kerstin’s care team a note to demonstrate that Elisabeth Kerstin’s mother was in a cult. The doctors brought to the missing mother of Kerstin’s appointment on television to report and to provide information about Kerstin’s medical history. The New York Times reported.

Elisabeth, who had a television in the basement, saw the television report and convinced Josef, she and the other two children, the sons Felix and Stefan, who were still detained with her in the basement.

On April 26, 2008, Elisabeth Kerstin visited Josef in the hospital after she was freed. At that time, Josef was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse. The police interviewed Elisabeth after what she had endured, but she would not work together if she had not promised her that she would never have to see her father again.

Josef was charged with coercion, freedom, incest, rape and enslavement by Elisabeth and the murder of newborn Michael because he had not given him any medical help, the BBC reported.

He initially guilty for all charges, except for enslavement and murder, but after a few days of his criminal proceedings, all the charges are guilty.

The New York Times reported that Michael’s negligent death had the highest prison sentence and the public prosecutor asked for the maximum time for Josef. On March 19, 2009, a 73-year-old Josef was sentenced to life in prison.

Where is Elisabeth Fritzl now?

Elisabeth changed her name to her father’s process. The mirror Registered in January 2024. Austrian law prevents news channels prevents their identity.

She lives in a rural Austrian city that lives in a rural Austrian city with its six surviving children and her partner Thomas Wagner, a bodyguard who was hired to protect the family, which is only known as “village X”.

The outlet announced that a member of her care team said that she was still drawn to get past her trauma and to have a certain appearance of normality.

“With the consent of her doctors, she hired psychiatric therapies while continuing with her life – driving, helping her children with their homework to make friends with people in their place,” they said. “She has lost the best years of her life in this basement; she is determined that she will be fulfilled with activity every day.”

Where are the children of Elisabeth Fritzl now?

Elisabeth had to give birth to seven children in the basement without medical help, including Kerstin, Stefan, Felix, Lisa, Monika, Alexander and the deceased Michael.

Elisabeth’s six surviving children were reunited after Josef’s crimes were discovered, but it took time to adapt.

The independent reported that the children (Lisa, Monika, Alexander), who grew up with Josef and Rosemarie, were guilty of leading a relatively normal life, while the other three (Kerstin, Stefan, Felix) had difficulty connecting when they first learned about the outside world.

Eight years later, Kerstin had a serious relationship and Stefan reports that they had ambitions to be a merchant captain The Belfast Telegraph. Felix was also a relatively well adapted child who enjoyed Playstation Games and attended school.

Elisabeth’s children are now adults, aged 21 to 36 and live with her in a remote Austrian village.

A local told The mirror“In view of what they went through, they are very polite, happy and smile a lot.”

Where is Josef Fritzl now?

In an interview in May 2023, Josef said The sun That he expressed different hopes, including the desire to unite with his family and to reconcile with his ex-wife Rosemarie, who divorced him in 2012.

“I understand people who want me to die in prison. But one day I want to experience freedom. I’m never afraid of dying,” he said.

A year later, in May 2024, Josef was approved for a transfer by a psychiatric prison to a regular prison, Reuters reported. In a declaration by the court it was stated that Josef was no longer a threat that called him in the “Forensic Therapeutic Center”, citing his dementia diagnosis and physical frailty.

In the Austrian correction system, such transfers are typical before prisoners receive a conditional release that Josef’s lawyer said she would look for him. However, the court also found that it is unlikely that it would ever be released from prison for “special preventive reasons”.

If you or someone you know sexually attacked, please contact the national hotline for sexual attacks under number 1-800-656-shop (4673) or go to Raininn.org.